The corpus record — Latin

Vesta

goddess of the domestic hearth

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Ab Urbe Condita, books 8-10 - 19s 1 · 49.75/10k
Copa, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 42.19/10k
Moretum, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 12.92/10k
Fasti 35 · 11.22/10k
Griphus Ternarii numeri 1 · 9.35/10k
Antoninus Heliogabalus 2 · 3.45/10k
Pro M. Scauro 1 · 3.37/10k
de bello Gildonico 1 · 3.16/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 1-5 - 5 5 · 3.11/10k
Excerpta Controversiae 6 · 2.8/10k
Elegiae 7 · 2.77/10k
Gallieni Duo 1 · 2.72/10k

Densest 12 of 63 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. Vesta — de Vaan

Vesta 'goddess of the domestic hearth" [f. a] (Enn.+; Pocula Deorum Vested datsg.) Derivatives: ves talis 'of Vesta or her cult' (Varro+). The closest cognate seems to be Gr. εστία 'hearth, fireplace', Ion. ίστίη, which has *w- in ριστισυ (ΡΝ, Mantineia), γιστία 'hearth' (Hsch.). This cannot be derived from PIE *h2ues- 'to spend the night, stay', since *h2- would have yielded a-. Possibly a loanword. Bibl.: WH II: … — [de Vaan, s.v. Vesta, p. 685]

2. Vesta — Lewis & Short

Vesta, ae, f.Sanscr. root vas, to burn; vasaras, day; whence also Gr. *esti/a.

I Another name for Ops, Cybele, Terra, the wife of Cœlus and mother of Saturn, Cic. N. D. 2, 27, 67; Ov. F. 6, 267.—

II Her granddaughter, daughter of Saturn, the goddess of flocks and herds, and of the household in general, Cic. N. D. 2, 27, 67; id. Leg. 2, 12, 29; id. Div. 1, 45, 101; id. Fam. 14, 2, 2; id. de Or. 3, 3, 10; in her temple the holy fire burned perpetually, attended by the Vestal virgins, id. Leg. 2, 8, 20; id. Cat. 4, 9, 18; Liv. 28, 11; 4, 52: Vestae sacerdos, i. e. the Pontifex maximus, of Cœsar, Ov. F. 5, 573; id. M. 15, 778.—

B Poet., transf.

1 The temple of Vesta: quo tempore Vesta Arsit Ov. F. 6, 437; cf. id. ib. 6, 234; 6, 713.—

2 Fire: ter liquido ardentem perfudit nectare Vestam, Verg. G. 4, 384; Sil. 6, 76.— Hence, Vestālis, e, adj., of or belonging to Vesta, Vestal: festi, Ov. F. 6, 395: ara, Luc. 1, 549: foci, id. 1, 199: virgines, priestesses of Vesta, Vestal virgins, Vestals, Cic. Leg. 2, 8, 20; id. Rep. 2, 14, 26; 3, 10, 17; Liv. 4, 44 fin.—Sing., Gell. 1, 12, 9: sacerdos, id. 1, 12, 14 al.—

B Substt.

1 Ve-stālis, is, f. (virgo), a priestess of Vesta, a Vestal, Liv. 1, 3 sq.; Plin. 28, 4, 7, § 39; Ov. F. 2, 383 al.—Hence, as adj.: Vestales oculi, of the Vestals, Ov. Tr. 2, 311.—

2 Ve-stālĭa, ĭum, n., the festival of Vesta, Varr. L. L. 6, 3, 17.

3. Vesta — Walde–Hofmann

Vesta, -ae f. „Göttin des häuslichen Herdes“ (seit Enn., vestälis, -e „vestalisch“, veszälis, -is f. , Vestalin" seit XII tab. (Gai. Inst. 1, 45), Varro bzw. Cic., Vestälia, “um n. „Vestalienfest“ seit Varro): na Sommer Gr. Ltst. 94 f. usw. (s.u.) zu gr. (att.) &otia aus *Feoría (gegen Vesta. 773 Solmsens Unt. 191 ff. 213 ff. Verbindung von éoría unter *jes- mit &oxdpo); dafür auch Kretschmer Cl. 1, 484 (vgl. Einl. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. Vesta, p. 1680]

4. Vesta — Walde–Hofmann

Vesta, *Eoria verknüpfen Curtius 399, Vanidek 277, Buck a. O. mit Wz. *ges- „leuchten, brennen“ (s. aurora oben I 86 und àró) ; eher aber zu Wz. *yes- ,weilen, wohnen, ein gemütliches Heim haben, sich gütlich tun“ (s. auch unter vöscor) in ai, väsati „wohnt, verweilt, übernachtet,“ av. vawhaiti „wohnt, verweilt*, ap. d-vahanam „Wohnplatz“, langvokalisch ai. vásáh „Verweilen, Übernachten, Aufenthalt“, edstuh -w … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. Vesta, p. 1681]

In the wild

Vestam Cicero, de Natura Deorum 1.36
Vesta Prudentius, Contra Symmachum 2.1.966
Vestae Cicero, Pro M. Scauro 48
Vestaque Vergil, Georgicon 1.498
Uestae Livy, Ab urbe condita, books 1-5 - 5 p52
Vesta Prudentius, Contra Symmachum 2.1.1079

6 of 169 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. Vesta (scan p. 685; entry #1968). Root candidates: *h2ues-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. Vesta (scan p. 753; entry #12575).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. Vesta (scan pp. 1681-1682; entry #3225). Root candidates: *ges-, *yes-, *ues-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.